This Battle Hero Brigadier AJS Behl Fought Towards Each China And Pak, Was Taken Prisoner In 62
AJS Behl noticed motion three years later within the Rann of Kutch in Gujarat in 1965.
Brigadier Amar Jit Singh Behl, a veteran of the 1962 India-China warfare, died yesterday on the age of 82 at a navy hospital in Haryana’s Chandimandir. Brigadier AJS Behl (retired) was a embellished officer who fought gallantly towards the Chinese language throughout the Battle of Namka Chu within the northeast and witnessed motion in 1965 and 1971.
Brig Behl died resulting from age-related points and the final rites will happen in Chandigarh. He was commissioned into the military in 1961 as a second lieutenant and earned the celebrated maroon colors of the elite parachute regiment in 1962. In considered one of his interviews with Claude Arpi, a French historian and an knowledgeable on Tibet and China, Brig Behl talked about his journey from becoming a member of the Parachute Discipline Regiment to witnessing motion in Arunachal Pradesh, erstwhile North East Frontier Company (NEFA).
He joined the 17 Parachute Discipline Regiment, an artillery regiment, after finishing an officer’s course in July 1962 in Agra. He underwent a gruelling take a look at and coaching process. By September 1962, he was a “full-fledged” paratrooper with para wings.
Battle Of Namka Chu, 1962
Brig Behl, a younger officer in 1962, was ordered to maneuver ahead in September and help the 7 Infantry Brigade beneath Brigadier John Dalvi deployed close to Namka Chu River. He was a gun place officer (GPO) within the ‘E’ troop. A battery of 36 Mortar Regiment was already current. The target of the contentious ‘Ahead Coverage’ was to evict the Chinese language from the Thagla Ridge and set up ahead posts near the MacMohan line. The border demarcation was primarily based on the watershed precept. Contesting claims emerged on Thagla Ridge, a tri-junction between India, Bhutan and Tibet, which didn’t observe the precept.
A troop with two officers – Captain HS Talwar, 2nd Lt Behl, 2 Junior Commissioned Officers (JCOs) and 45 males had been airlifted with 4 75mm howitzer weapons. For 3 weeks, AJS Behl and his males had been deployed on a plateau overlooking Namka Chu, which ended with the Chinese language taking up the Indian posts and destroying the 7 Infantry Brigade.
October 19, 1962
The Chinese language lit a bonfire on October 19 to indicate their energy Brig. Behl advised Claude Arpi within the interview, “We might see them from bare eyes, they needed us to see that they’re there. On October 19, the nursing assistant in 17 Para Discipline Regt. died resulting from pulmonary oedema and three extra males died resulting from excessive altitude illness. The communication strains had been lower and the Chinese language had lower us from the rear and I could not use the wi-fi as a result of thick tress of Namka Chu.”
The following morning, weapons echoed within the mountain and the Chinese language opened hearth and heavy artillery shelling started, AJS Behl mentioned in his account he wrote for the United Providers Institute (USI).
“Although we had no communication with anyone, I ordered my weapons to begin firing straight. There was a outstanding space, the Black Rock, the place we noticed a number of Chinese language, we saved firing there,” he mentioned. Brigadier John Dalvi in his ebook, The Himalayan Blunder, described the valour displayed by the 17 Para Discipline Regiment.
The Chinese language captured him and AJS Behl and his males and took them as prisoners of warfare (POW). “From proud paratroopers, we had been now POWs of the Chinese language” at Tsangdhar, he mentioned, including that it was a “huge shock” to him.
He was repatriated after seven months and handed over to the Indian Pink Cross in Bumla. He was later posted again to the 17 Parachute Discipline Regiment.
AJS Behl noticed motion three years later within the Rann of Kutch in Gujarat. Pakistan launched Operation Desert Hawk in April and infiltrated round 10 km inside Indian territory. A UK-brokered ceasefire subtle tensions solely to get reignited 4 months later in Jammu and Kashmir with Operation Gibraltar and Operation Grand Slam, the final try by Pakistan to take Kashmir.
The officer was by no means out of motion. In 1971, he was once more on the battlefield towards Pakistan. He retired because the Deputy Director Basic of NCC in Jammu and Kashmir in 1995.
